


it's gonna be forever (or it's gonna go down in flames)

by AngstyChaosMagicUser



Series: Blank Space [1]
Category: Glowfic and Related Works, Naruto
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, multiversal shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 15:48:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18694540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngstyChaosMagicUser/pseuds/AngstyChaosMagicUser
Summary: Sasuke, as the fight with Itachi ends, finds himself transported to another, strange world -At the same time a teenaged Hashirama is yanked from his own timeline.Sasuke would like to register an objection to Hashirama's Everything.





	it's gonna be forever (or it's gonna go down in flames)

**Author's Note:**

> So this is an import of an RP, so format might be a bit wonky. I split up different segments with more line breaks, and edited it to clearly refer to who's talking/thinking at each segment. Still, it might be easier to follow along with the original: https://glowfic.com/posts/3052
> 
> Also I'm going to single-handedly launch this ship, see if I don't.

Itachi collapses at Sasuke's feet, body crumpling, and Sasuke doesn't have the energy to appreciate it beyond the surge and crash of adrenaline rushing through him - 

He's too tired to dodge the random mirror-faced snake that appears and decides to eat him.

He gets a glimpse of a strange forest, trees bizarrely shaped and colored, before he passes out.

  
  


Hashirama is a lot more conscious when ambushed by a mirror snake; he is, however, occupied with trying to get it away from his clan members, and it's unfairly fast - 

When it eats him he appears crouching in the strange new area. The trees don't know him; the very ground feels odd, almost lifeless.

And there's an unconscious, wounded Uchiha five feet away.

Hashirama looks around, trying to get a hold - the area's almost barren, there's no wisps of nature chakra - 

But he doesn't feel any other humans for miles, and that Uchiha is close to death, and Hashirama wants peace even if Tajima and Butsuma won't allow it - 

He kneels, and slowly begins to heal the other boy.

  
  


Sasuke knows better than to tense when he wakes, or to change his breathing - he listens, tries to identify where he is and what's happening -

That isn't Karin's chakra healing him, and the healing feels... Almost unrefined. An inexperienced medic? Or someone without formal training?

And - he's not very good at sensing chakra, but the world around him feels  _ quiet, _ and the person beside him very, very bright.

 

Hashirama finishes healing him then backs off. "I know you're awake," he says. "I'm not intending to fight you."

 

Sasuke opens his eyes, rolls into a crouch, looks at his healer -

And his face goes a bit blank.

Sasuke's good at recognizing faces.

That.

He's pretty sure that's teenaged Senju Hashirama.

His sharingan flickers to life.

  
  


Hashirama spreads his hands, palms visible and empty. "As I said, not trying to fight. We're both somewhere odd, I don't think it benefits us. Temporary ceasefires have happened before, we just need to each find our way back to our clans."

  
  


Sasuke flinches a little.

(He just killed the last of his clan.)

"You."

He shakes his head. "What year do you think it is?"

And looks around a bit, keeping the (maybe fake) Senju in his peripheral vision. The trees around them look more like the coral he saw in the Land of Water once, and there's tangles of seaweed-like grass that's oddly buoyant in the distance. Sasuke would think they were underwater, except what's around him's plainly air.

  
  


"...Uh." Hashirama's not one of the people keeping records, and 'how many years has it been since the last Emperor died' is he thinks the usual referent but he's not sure on that. The twice he's been dragged into meeting a daimyo they just referred to the daimyo's reign. "At least? One century?" he says, hesitantly.

  
  


Sasuke shakes his head. "For the Death Count - two hundred and seven. For me."

He drags a hand down his face. "It's been sixty four years since the shinobi village of Konoha was founded by the Uchiha and Senju clans. You're - either we both got kicked through the timeline, or you're a fake, or there's somehow multiple timelines..." Orochimaru might've talked about that, once.

He doesn't want to deal with this. He wants to curl up in a depressed ball and just. Not move. Itachi's dead and Sasuke's purpose feels like it's drained out of him entirely.

  
  


The Uchiha might be lying. Might be trying to trick Hashirama. But - he doesn't feel like it. He's not acting all that wary, not like an enemy would.

And it's a weird lie.

Still - 

"We founded a village?" Hashirama asks, a bit stunned. 

  
  


"Yeah." Sasuke shrugs. He doesn't know that much about the Land of Fire's history in that period, really - only thing he's read about from back then is the precursors to the Seven Swordsmen.

He relaxes from his crouch, sitting, and staring at his hands.

He really doesn't know how to process what happened with Itachi, and a timetraveling Founder isn't super helping that.

  
  


Hashirama sits too, at a loss for what else to do. He supposes he could explore the area, but... There's still an ingrained sense telling him not to turn his back on a strange Uchiha.

Still: "Are you alright?"

  
  


That's really none of his business.

(But Sasuke really, really  _ isn't _ alright.)

He takes a deep breath and stands. "Come on. Let's figure out where we are."

  
  


Hashirama pauses, then nods, deciding to let the issue slide. It's not like the Uchiha has any reason to trust him...

"What's your name, by the way? I'm Hashirama."

  
  


"Sasuke," he says, looking everywhere but the other teen.

  
  


"Nice to meet you, Sasuke!" Hashirama joins the other in kind of performatively looking around. "So... Try to find civilization, or try and build a shelter on our own? I don't sense anyone other than you, but... Well, can't sense the plants, either."

  
  


Attempting to talk to people sounds like the last thing Sasuke wants to do ever.

It's probably the only way they're gonna get out of here, but... It's not like he has anything to do back to. Might as well camp in the wilderness. No Naruto to keep chasing him out here. Hopefully.

"Shelter," he says after an awkwardly long pause.

  
  


"Right!" Hashirama says cheerily, completely ignoring any social awkwardness. "We might want to set up so we can keep an eye on here but aren't right on it, in case other people show up!"

  
  


Sasuke nods, then jumps up into one of the taller coral-trees to try and get a look around. There's some high ground - a few places that might make good hiding spots already, but like caves there's a risk of inhabitants - that seaweed might make good lashing for a shelter, and there's a few broader leaves that can be worked together...

He hasn't noticed any insects yet, too, but they'll need to keep in mind keeping those away...

He turns his head, starts trying to identify where there's more clusters of life, or see if he can hear water. So far he hasn't seen any movement indicative of animal life...

  
  


Hashirama goes to identify good plants - he can if he touches something still get a sense of edibility; the seaweed should be fine for them to eat...

He's able to find a few animals in coral caves, too, brightly colored and mostly inclined to flee from him, though one unfairly fast insect-thing punches the air in front of him and sends him flying back several dozen feet, bruises and burns blooming across his skin and bones breaking.

  
  


Sasuke's only thought is  _ '...The First Hokage is a fucking idiot.' _

Sasuke gets behind the insect-thing, kills it with lightning, then runs to check on Hashirama, nervous about touching him because he so very much does not have medic training.

  
  


Hashirama, while he wouldn't really contest the 'idiot' part since, well, fair, does in fact have a healing factor. It's slower without natural chakra to draw on, but his burns are already fading and his bones are considering settling back into place.

He makes a very theatrical show of groaning.

  
  


"Are you safe to move?" Sasuke demands.

  
  


Hashirama cracks one eye open. "...Maybe?" he mutters, the words only sort of slurring.

  
  


Sasuke sighs and bends to carefully pick him up, carrying him _ away _ from Mystery Inhabited Caves and over to a small clearing at the base of some very-not-inhabited coral towers. "Stay here. I'll build the shelter."

  
  


"Okay..."

Hashirama relaxes, settles in to focus on healing himself.

(He's going to be exhausted after this, but, well, Sasuke doesn't seem to have any kind of grudge against him, and if the Uchiha and Senju really are allies in his time...)

  
  


...Something about that face is annoying Sasuke. It's a very inconvenient face.

He huffs, turns away, and stalks off to go harvest seaweed and other assorted vegetation.

  
  


Hashirama keeps healing himself, and drifts into sleep before Sasuke finishes.

  
  


The sunset on this planet, when it comes, is long and brilliantly hued, the air far above wavering. 

The dying light doesn't reveal anything as pedestrian as stars, though, and as the sun grows close enough to obscured to be looked at it becomes apparent something is very, very odd.

For one, it's not a single mass - it's many shifting bits of glowing light, moving together so tightly they resemble a sphere.

For another, strange creatures cross the sky amidst ribbons of blue and green light that scintillate across the cosmos, and the closest things to stars are distant moving glows - Sasuke's sharingan will be able to detect even the apparently stationary stars moving in an unexpected pattern.

  
  


This definitely isn't Sasuke's home world.

He'll force himself to stay awake while Hashirama sleeps, through the burst of the glowing sun-pieces back over the horizon. He has some food sealed away; he doesn't want to risk going out hunting while the only medic in the area is unconscious and vulnerable, and he hasn't recovered enough for shadow clones. So, he unseals a few simple things, collects water, and has a broth ready for Hashirama when he wakes.

  
  


Which Hashirama will do a few hours later, initially coming to groggily then snapping the rest of the way awake when the weird registers to his chakra-sense.

  
  


"Hey. You awake?" Sasuke asks from a hopefully safe distance in case Hashirama has any amnesia.

  
  


Hashirama groans, and remembers getting dropped on the weird world, meeting Sasuke, getting punched by a shrimp...

"Physically?" Hashirama asks. "Yeah. Dignity may never recover."

  
  


A snort escapes Sasuke, almost surprising himself. "Like you had any in the first place."

  
  


"Take that back! I'm made of dignity!" Hashirama responds, grinning.

  
  


"Made of dumbass, maybe," Sasuke says, but he might be faintly smiling.

  
  


"So mean..." Hashirama says, curling in on himself and sulking.

  
  


...What is that weird feeling in Sasuke's chest, it should stop.

Sasuke looks away, crossing his arms and _ not pouting. _

  
  


Hashirama's not going to stop dramatically pouting on his own, unfortunately.

  
  


Argh.

"Come on, idiot, you need water and food," Sasuke says, huffing. "Or I'll dunk you in the stream."

  
  


"You're worse than even Madara..." Hashirama mopes, but unfolds and obligingly eats Sasuke's rations. "We should be more careful, I guess, when exploring now. Move together, don't split up."

  
  


"As the medic, you especially need to be careful," Sasuke acknowledges. "I'm probably faster than you, with better reactions, so I should be taking point."

  
  


"Don't really like that, but you have a good point..." He shrugs, finishes up his meal. "Explore out in a spiral?"

  
  


Sasuke nods. "I can show you what I've found, too..."

  
  


There's a stream nearby them, deep and crystal clear, with translucent winged fish flitting through it. There's the coral hills, which in the morning's light have numerous colorful creatures flying about - they have a shape reminiscent of birds, but scales like fish and wings like a butterfly or dragonfly. A few creatures lie in wait for prey in the coral, visible easily to Sasuke's sharp eyes but Hashirama will have trouble spotting them all, so cleverly are they camouflaged. 

The seaweed forest is tall and dense, and the light barely penetrates into it. Nothing's attacked Sasuke while he's harvested from its edges, but he's yet to go too deep in.

Once they make their cautious way near the top of a taller coral hill, the gentle rise of a volcano becomes apparent in the distance. It doesn't seem likely to be imminently in danger of erupting, but, well, neither Sasuke nor Hashirama are exactly volcanologists.

The soil most places is a thick, ever-shifting sand, too heavy to be picked up by the wind easily but inconvenient and slippery like mud.

There's a distant noise, growing and fading and growing again, a wailing song. Whatever it is causing it isn't visible nor able to be sensed.

  
  


"It's pretty, at least," Hashirama says, bending to investigate some more of the plants. "And at least I can tell which of these are edible... I'm not sure we want to risk any of the animals, though, I don't have as good a read on those."

  
  


Sasuke nods, and, wearily, "We'll probably have to find civilization, to ask them."

  
  


"I don't see or hear signs of anyone near, and this is a pretty fertile area, but they might just be at low densities." Hashirama shrugs and stands, twisting to look about.

  
  


"Inconvenient." Sasuke shakes his head. "We might be able to see more, from that peak," he says, pointing at the volcano in the distance. It's the tallest thing around, though not by much. "Especially if we jump." He's never used that to navigate, but shinobi can easily get pretty high in the air.

  
  


"Sensible," Hashirama says. "Let's secure some supplies first, though - maybe make baskets?"

  
  


Sasuke snorts. "I have _ seals. _ Skin for whatever's vital, scrolls for whatever's not."

  
  


Hashirama stops and blinks. "You can seal? That's amazing! Only the Uzumaki can, that I've run into, though my brother's trying to get them to teach him..."

  
  


"Guess it really did used to be a lost art." Sasuke shrugs. "I just know enough for transporting items."

  
  


"Still, that'll help a lot! We can carry so much... Though do you have ink?" Hashirama asks.

  
  


"Some," Sasuke replies. "I know what's needed to make more, though, or blood works. One of the animals seems to attack by squirting ink, which's probably the best source - biological inks work better than mineral usually."

  
  


"I can catch some of those while you work on the seals, then," Hashirama says cheerily. 

  
  


"Just don't get punched by another shrimp," Sasuke says with a huff.

  
  


And Hashirama's back in his funk!

"It was one time..." he mutters.

  
  


Sasuke rolls his eyes, and says, "Come on, idiot. We don't want to waste daylight."

  
  


Hashirama perks back up and follows him to help with the harvesting.

They're not able to set out before nightfall, and Hashirama curls up a respectful distance from Sasuke with a nest he's made out of seaweed. They'll be bringing the building supplies, too - no sense in having to redo all the preparatory work, and not everywhere's going to have the same resources.

Hashirama's currently humming, having finally figured out how to coax his Mokuton - he's still not having much luck with the soil here, it lacks something apparently vital, but growing a bowl from his arm wasn't too hard after a bit of experimenting. Seaweed-fruit soup is surprisingly good.

"You know," he says, humming happily, "I'm glad to have gotten dropped alongside you. You're a good person for this."

  
  


Oh no,  _ feelings. _

Sasuke huffs and looks away, muttering, "It's fine..."

(He's not too disappointed by Hashirama, either - the other boy's competent, if silly...)

  
  


Hashirama just smiles at the other boy, then volunteers to take first watch, since Sasuke stayed up all yesterday.

  
  


Sasuke nods, a bit grateful for the change in topic, and turns to go to sleep.

(His dreams are restless. He keeps flipping through his fight with Itachi, everything he's ever known about Itachi, like a thorn under his skin and there was something horribly wrong with that fight - )

He wakes to the morning chorus of the fish-birds, still groggy, and turns over.

"You let me sleep," he says accusingly to Hashirama.

  
  


Hashirama shrugs. "Wasn't tired. No point in having both of us up." He doesn't mention Sasuke's clear nightmares. He gets those, too. Pretty much only doesn't when he's in a healing sleep.

  
  


"Whatever," Sasuke mumbles, and stands.

  
  


Hashirama lets it drop, and, after they finish sealing their shelter supplies, they're off to the volcano. At shinobi speeds it's relatively close, but it still takes them two hours to get to the top since they agreed to be careful with chakra for now.

  
  


The view stretches pretty far - there's not a lot obscuring the horizon around here. There's a place where the land drops off suddenly, likely a steep cliff, a few dozen miles to the north-ish (the sun-like-thing is mostly staying on a consistent path, making some effort to map cardinal directions onto this planet possible). There's a dark forest of seaweed to their south, that takes up the entirety of a gently rising slope. The cliff-edge as it progresses both east and west curves to the south.

To the west is what very well might be buildings - rounded corners too smooth and regular to be likely naturally grown. It'll take a day or two to get there going at a reasonable pace, though they could likely manage it in a few hours sprinting. Still, that'd leave them exhausted and unable to respond as well to any threats.

  
  


Sasuke votes for going more slowly towards the maybe-village.

It's practical, they don't want to be exhausted when they arrive...

But also he doesn't want this - break of sorts - to end.

(Doesn't actually want to return to his home world).

  
  


"Yeah, that makes sense," Hashirama says, nodding. He doesn't really touch Sasuke's obvious reluctance; it feels like it'd be rude and presumptuous to do that. 

  
  


Sasuke nods, quiet, and pauses, examining the horizon a little longer.

  
  


"You know," Hashirama starts, "We can spend a bit exploring. I've never been inside a volcano! And there's a lot to learn about this place."

 

Sasuke pauses, and - "That'd be kind of stupid..."

  
  


Hashirama shrugs. "It - look, my clan will need me back eventually. But I've been gone for months before without things collapsing, and... They didn't need me at that time. It's... If you have something to return to, we can rush, but I don't need to. Somewhere the only things trying to kill me are cheating shrimp is... Nice."

He pauses. "I guess I shouldn't be assuming the animals here aren't sapient, but... Do they send kids out? To fight in your time?"

  
  


"Not standard. Most people graduate at twelve." Sasuke pauses, looks down. "My brother graduated at seven."

  
  


Hashirama frowns. "That's too young. Twelve... I don't know. I don't know when people are ready, just that seven year olds aren't. I wouldn't have allowed seven. Not in my village..."

He takes a deep breath. "Most clans send kids out between five and seven, the first time. Skilled ones especially."

  
  


Sasuke thinks, frowning too. "The Third Hokage was in charge then. He'd been in charge a while. I'd... Be surprised if there was anything he couldn't have changed." He shrugs. "I think the Fifth Hokage banned early graduation, I remember someone mentioning it. She's your granddaughter, so..."

  
  


"A granddaughter, huh?" Hashirama says, wistfully. "That's kind of amazing... I've always been afraid of what will happen when I have kids, my father's been pushing me to marry, but I don't think I want any children while he's clan head..."

  
  


Sasuke nods. Hesitantly, quietly: "I used to want to restore my clan. Something happened, and I'm now the last, but... I don't know if it's worth it."

He looks away, uncomfortable.

  
  


Hashirama nods, seriously. "Even with a village... I don't think I'd want kids that didn't have a clan protecting them."

Hashirama tilts his head back to look up at the strange sky. "The shinobi world needs to change. A lot. And... I guess I'm sad, that my great dream of founding a village didn't get us all the way there. But... It sounds like you didn't have to fight until you were twelve. And that's... It's not a revolution. But it's a lot."

  
  


"...Yeah. Maybe it is," Sasuke responds, voice quiet.

  
  


Hashirama sends him a warm glance, and asks, "How much do you know about my life? I can't imagine the shinobi tendency for secrecy has changed much either, even if it's something that should..."

  
  


Sasuke shrugs. "Not much. You founded Konoha with Madara. You have one brother, Tobirama. You have a wife, and a granddaughter."

  
  


He goes sad a bit - but not mopey. Pensive.

"I didn't always have just one brother. I used to have two more..." he begins, explaining how his baby brothers died in the fighting, how he decided it was  _ enough _ \- meeting Madara, who'd lost three of his four brothers as well, dreaming of an end to the fighting - Tobirama following and betraying him to his father, the split between him and Madara and how Madara seemed to have abandoned their dream in favor of protecting his family...

"It's still something I want. Desperately," he finishes. "It was too late for my brothers, but... Maybe not for other people's brothers. And if I can learn what went wrong in your world... Maybe I can make it better. Reach farther. Leave a bigger impact."

  
  


"...That's a good goal," is all Sasuke can say.

It stirs something in him, now that his choking, _ stupid _ grief has had time to move to the back of his mind. (He shouldn't be mourning Itachi but he can't stop and every time he thinks of it his eyes burn.)

What happened to him was horrible.

He thinks... Hashirama would maybe not... Not do that thing he hates, cooing about oh no, or ignoring it as something inconsequential or less important than his own grief, but would...

Would say 'that should never have happened. Let's fix it so it doesn't.'

Sasuke doesn't think he can form the words though, not yet.

  
  


"I'd hope so," Hashirama says, expression serious. "There's a lot of things wrong with the world, but... I'm going to do as much as I can." He stretches. "Wonder if people here have the same problems as us..."

  
  


Sasuke shrugs. "Dunno."

  
  


"Guess we'll have to talk to them to find out," Hashirama says.

Then, sensing that Sasuke's done talking - "So! Wanna explore the volcano?"

  
  


Sasuke makes a non-committal hum but will follow when Hashirama sets off for adventure.

  
  


The volcano is not much like descriptions they will have heard of volcanoes. There's lava tubes, which are large and very interesting to explore, but the lava itself isn't easy to find. No convenient pools in the middle to stare dramatically at. Very disappointing, really.

  
  


Hashirama's still pretty fascinated! Some of it echoes weirdly, but not like limestone caves! There's types of rock he hasn't seen before!

  
  


Sasuke follows along, aloof but a bit amused.

  
  


Hashirama's boundless energy will eventually lead them back out of the volcanic tunnels, and onto the slope. Here'd be a really good place to camp, but it's still barely midday, and he's not sure he wants to linger that long.

So off in a vaguely village-wards direction it is!

  
  


The coral hills and groupings change, as do the animals - the coral's more frequently fan-like near the village, the bird-things more strongly composed of gliders. There's streams that combine into a larger river that seems to feed directly to the village, or at least most of the way there, that's probably the best route for them to follow.

One advantage of the change in coral is there seem to be less of the punching shrimp, here - more eel-like creatures, which spark with electricity if someone gets too close. More things that're probably crabs, shells composed of differently colored bits of a glassy material fused together.

  
  


Hashirama thinks this place is pretty cool when it's not trying to kill him, and it really only did that the once, so!

  
  


Oh, look, something very big is moving on the northern horizon!

  
  


Sasuke stills, activates his sharingan, and jumps up to the top of a coral hill to observe it.

  
  


It's apparently a flying shark.

A very, very,  _ very _ large flying shark, about seven times the length of Sasuke's body. It's lazily floating back and forth, apparently scanning the area around it.

  
  


Not good.

Sasuke will jump down to warn Hashirama they may want to take cover until it goes away.

  
  


It notices the movement - 

And turns to rush towards them.

It's  _ extremely _ fast.

  
  


Sasuke switches to grabbing Hashirama and running. They've been conserving chakra, so can accelerate quite a bit - 

  
  


It crashes into the slope behind them, shaking the ground, then starts flinging itself up in their tracks.

  
  


Hashirama's most powerful attacks all rely on Mokuton, which isn't working at scale here - 

Molding the earth doesn't work, or it does in a way but feels like it'll take more energy than he has -

  
  


Sasuke shoots a fire-dragon at it.

  
  


Which washes over its skin - apparently just making it angry.

It slams into the ground again, throwing waves of sand out.

Hashirama's forced to dodge, his trajectory bringing him away from Sasuke when he miscalculates the other's path.

It twists, massive jaws - each tooth larger than his hand - gaping as it surges for him.

Its first bite destroys a hastily constructed wooden barricade grown from Hashirama's arms, the teeth snapping inches from his flesh.

He throws himself back, but he's firmly on the defensive now.

And it's faster than him as it lunges again.

  
  


Sasuke, meanwhile, has what can only be called a panic attack - he's gotten used to fighting through them, to ignoring the way his blood freezes in his veins and his thoughts shiver and scatter and circle around themselves - 

He sprints towards Hashirama, but there's an insistent screeching in his head he won't be fast enough, and a grievous burning in his eyes - 

And  _ something _ unfolds around him as he imposes himself between Hashirama and the monster, his sword drawn and crackling with lightning that sparks black.

The monster's teeth close around the construct, with enough force to crumple steel - 

But Sasuke's Susano holds, and he gestures forwards, the thing's arm forming a blade of black fire and stabbing forwards and up even as he limes the entire construct with lightning.

This shark does not appreciate being suddenly electrocuted and set on ever-burning fire! It shrieks and rears back, thrashing, then turns, swimming off as rapidly as it came.

Sasuke drops the Susano and falls to his knees, gasping, vision swimming and blurring in and out, a sticky wetness on his cheeks, his sword slipping through his numb fingers.

He... Really hadn't recovered enough for that, had he.

  
  


"Shit - Sasuke!" Hashirama calls, kneeling behind him and putting his hands on his shoulders. "I got you - "

And healing chakra washes over the other boy, concentrated and tremendous, more than Hashirama's spared for healing before.

"Your eyes are bleeding..." Hashirama mutters. "Do I have your permission to try healing them?"

  
  


Sasuke's bone-deep exhaustion immediately starts receding.

"Yeah," he mutters, even as his heart races. Itachi...

Itachi had said the Mangekyou drives you blind, had attributed his black fire and Susano to it - 

Sasuke  _ shouldn't have the Mangekyou _ , he didn't love Itachi, he _ didn't _ \- 

(He might be hyperventilating.)

  
  


Hashirama will frown, and consider, then slowly, giving Sasuke time to push him away, press his front to Sasuke's back, put his head on his shoulder, and just breathe deeply and evenly. 

Then of course he'll also put his hand on Sasuke's forehead, and start probing the chakra networks, blood vessels, and nerves in the optic area.

  
  


Sasuke shivers but doesn't pull away, and does, gradually, start breathing a bit better.

...Okay this is getting embarrassing but he's not sure he wants to risk disrupting the medic currently wrapping his chakra around Sasuke's eyes. Maybe just resolutely pretending this didn't happen will work...

  
  


"Your chakra networks are pretty badly inflamed," Hashirama says. "Looks like there's too much resistance and not enough capacity in them for what you were doing, causing damage, which spilled over to the blood vessels... It's also increasing pressure in your eyeballs, which if left untreated will damage your vision over time. I can relieve it, if you'd like, but it won't permanently stop that from happening again."

 

Sasuke half-shrugs. "Go ahead..." he mutters.

  
  


Hashirama nods and shuffles a bit, shifting his awkward sort-of-hug to relieve the building cramp in his wrist, and then gently setting about shuffling fluids and chakra around. These vessels can be knit back together, this extra fluid can be extracted, this turbulent build-up of chakra can be smoothed out and directly elsewhere, this weird and raw tangle around Sasuke's eyes - he thinks it's what's causing the problem, but he doesn't know if it's required for Sasuke's techniques to function, and he's never treated an Uchiha before healing Sasuke that first day.

  
  


Once Hashirama finishes, Sasuke disentangles himself with a muttered "Thanks" and a refusal to meet Hashirama's gaze.

  
  


"It's no problem. You saved my life with that, after all."

Hashirama doesn't push eye contact. Nor where Sasuke got that ability - it was clearly a strange eye technique, but Hashirama's never seen an Uchiha use something like that before. Of course, asking a near-stranger (no matter how much Hashirama really, really likes Sasuke) about their techniques - or even a friend or family member - is a massive taboo. 

  
  


Sasuke just shrugs, still uncomfortable and unable to bring himself to look at Hashirama. His face feels warm.

  
  


"Sorry about being kind of dead weight, there," Hashirama says after a few awkward moments of silence. "I guess I've come to rely way too much on my Mokuton and secondarily my Doton, especially against big opponents... The plants and earth here feel more resistant to my techniques, or - at least less responsive. And I'm used to drawing pretty heavily on nature chakra for just about everything..."

  
  


"It's fine," Sasuke says. "Come on, let's keep going."

  
  


"Right." Hashirama shoots Sasuke a concerned look when he's looking away, but follows him back to the river they'd been walking along.

With the fight's delay, they won't get to the village before sun-down - at their current pace, they're still a few hours out. There's a low wind, here, making it chillier than it was where they first camped.

"I don't think we should push on," is Hashirama's opinion. "Even through dusk. We'll want to set up camp while we have light, after all..."

  
  


Sasuke nods, agreeing, and helps find a hollow sheltered from the wind, distant enough from the river they're less likely to be stumbled upon by animals coming for a drink, and far enough from the coral caves to avoid nocturnal animals emerging to hunt.

He unseals their supplies for the night with practiced efficiency.

Working together with Hashirama to build the camp is relaxing, almost. Hashirama doesn't engage in dramatics, nor screw things up, nor bother Sasuke when he doesn't want to be bothered...

  
  


Hashirama likes working with Sasuke, too! He's competent, but doesn't scold Hashirama for not doing it the one correct way.

After a bit of back and forth, he'll concede on giving Sasuke first watch, then settle in to sleep.

(What would have happened if Sasuke's construct had failed joins his nightmares...)

  
  


Sasuke wakes him halfway through the night, as promised.

(He recognizes that sort of stillness. He's grouchy that Hashirama let him sleep last night, but... Well, he guesses the best way to avoid them both repeatedly refusing to wake the other up is to just not do that.)

  
  


Hashirama wakes up quickly, and takes over the watch.

He doesn't wake Sasuke immediately upon dawn.

He's... Not super sure he wants to be in a rush to get to civilization, either. Though presumably civilization will have fewer shark attacks.

  
  


Sasuke doesn't push him about the late morning when he does eventually wake, just helps make breakfast and then break camp quietly.

  
  


Hashirama, recognizing that Sasuke's about to start brooding, starts up a light chatter - mostly about his surviving family, especially shenanigans Tobirama's gotten up to - as they pack and then set out.

  
  


...As far as Sasuke's concerned, that's at least better than being trapped with his own circling thoughts.

Sasuke tolerates the chatter, listening and making 'hn' noises at appropriate points. He's... Glad, that Hashirama isn't pushing him to give verbal answers. Even Naruto, who could easily carry an entire conversation himself, tended to get angry when he felt Sasuke wasn't engaging. Hashirama just lets him drift in and out.

  
  


Honestly Sasuke's a lot less unfriendly than Tobirama, Hashirama's kind of used to people who listen but don't engage.

He'll let the chatter trail off as they get in easy sight of the village.

  
  


The village is audible now, too, the words too distant to be distinct - but many of them are melodic, like people are singing instead of speaking. There's cart noises and what's likely animal noises, and a rhythmic 'ting-ting-ting' of a blacksmith.

  
  


"I don't know that reconnaissance will help much..." Sasuke murmurs.

  
  


"And we don't know their senses, nor their culture - they might see it as unfriendly," Hashirama says agreeably. 

  
  


Sasuke nods. "So, onwards down the main path?"

  
  


"Probably best, yeah," Hashirama agrees.

  
  


The people, once Sasuke and Hashirama find the main road and then come into view of the village proper, don't look much like humans. Some of them distantly resemble some of the odder clans, but not very. There's a girl with a humanoid upper half (except for the faint shimmer of scales on her flesh) that fades into a tail with no legs, using a wheelchair to push herself around. There's an older girl, a bit larger than Sasuke or Hashirama but still looking juvenile, floating behind an empty wheelchair she's pushing as she talks to her maybe-sister. Both have blue-green hair that shimmers with flecks of trapped stars, and both wear clothing woven from seaweed and heavily decorated with coral beads.

There's multiple beings that seem to resemble different types of crabs, many of them capable of holding themselves slightly upright to carry things. Most of them wear decoration, but there's not really  _ clothing. _

There's a crowd of octopuses, most of them half Sasuke's height, mostly colored in dull shades of blue and brown, pulling themselves along the ocean floor. Some of the larger ones seem capable of hopping and floating short distances.

There's assorted variations on humanoid jellyfish, who seem to have an easier time flying than most of the village's inhabitants.

Many of them turn to look at Sasuke and Hashirama when they round the corner, and one jellyfish girl flutters her bowl-hair and skirt and flows over to them, making curious chirping noises.

  
  


"...I don't know your language," Sasuke says after a glance at Hashirama.

  
  


There's a sweep of sing-song chittering through the crowd like that, and the two mermaid girls move closer to them - the floating one leaving her empty wheelchair behind to come and make a wobbly circle around both boys. She tries a few human-ish languages, becoming excited when Sasuke and Hashirama recognize none of them.

The mermaid still in a wheelchair sings something almost like a complaint, making her floating friend laugh, as the jellyfish girl pokes Hashirama.

  
  


Hashirama laughs and lets her poke him, even when it stings a bit. Nothing he can't heal.

  
  


The jellyfish girl makes a happy, trilling sound, and loops over to examine Sasuke.

Floating mermaid girl quivers, then seems to be having some trouble floating, until she starts resting her weight on Hashirama's shoulders (clearly, he's the friendlier one here).

  
  


"You guys are nice, at least!" Hashirama says. "Uh, I'm not too good at charades..."

  
  


Sasuke sends a slightly exasperated glance at him. "I might be able to use genjutsu to communicate, at least images..."

  
  


Jelly girl floats in front of Sasuke, face serious, and taps her hair-bell, then goes to wrap her tendril-like fingers around his head.

  
  


...Sasuke activates his sharingan but hesitantly allows it.

  
  


The sharingan startles her, but soon enough she's laid her tendrils along his forehead, found his chakra points, and - 

_ 'Hi!' _ a voice chirps in his mind.  _ 'Hi! Can you hear me?' _

  
  


Sasuke nods, slowly.

  
  


She trills.

And, mentally:  _ 'That's so neat! I haven't seen anyone like you before! I'm - ' _ and a series of electrical crackling notes - _ 'but if your vocal cords can't do that Spark works. Who're you?' _

  
  


"Sasuke," he says out loud, and tries thinking, _ 'My name's Sasuke. I guess - Bird, if you can't say that.'  _ He'll tentatively send a mental picture of a hawk.

  
  


_ 'Bird! That's a funny name. You don't look like one!' _ Spark sends.

  
  


_ 'I work with them,' _ Sasuke explains. 

  
  


_ 'Oooooh,'  _ Spark responds. _ 'I got it! Where're you two from?' _

  
  


Sasuke will send a mental overview of what happened to drop them both here, and a vague concept of what his world's like.

  
  


_ 'We don't have anything like that mirror thing here... Maybe you're from another galaxy!'  _ she says, mental voice and posture excited. When prompted, she explains,  _ 'The galaxy's really big! It has a lot of planets! It's kind of a circle that bulges up around a sphere in the middle, and the closer you get to the middle the more thing's're possible. I'm not big enough to fly off this planet yet, though, so I haven't explored. I heard the very very center of the galaxy connects to other galaxies!' _

  
  


Sasuke nods. _ 'That sounds like how we might get home. Do you... Know anyone who can show us how to get there?' _

  
  


She chirps.  _ 'Dunno! Maybe Spray's big sister? Sprays the mergirl sitting on your friend. She's silly, to have left her chair behind so she can't just use that when she's tired, but her oldest sister's really big and has been exploring the area around here off the planet lately. She's not big enough to leave the sunlight yet, but she might know people.' _

  
  


_ 'That works,' _ Sasuke sends. A pause, and -  _ 'Can we stay here, in the meantime?' _

  
  
  


_ 'Yes! Of course!'  _ Spark chirps, then sings something out loud. Several of the other jelly-people flit into buildings, apparently talking to people, and a few call back. _ 'We don't get visitors from other galaxies! Or anywhere! This is really exciting!' _

  
  


...Maybe Sasuke can get Hashirama to answer all questions.

_ 'Okay,'  _ is all he says.

  
  


_ 'Yeah! I'm gonna detangle now, okay?'  _ Spark sends, then unwinds her tendrils and zooms off when Sasuke agrees.

Spray chirps something as she does, clearly amused, and by now resting more of her weight on Hashirama's shoulders.

  
  


"They seem friendly! So what was that about?" Hashirama asks, easily shifting his weight to accommodate the taller girl.

  
  


Sasuke recounts the conversation.

(...He's vaguely uncomfortable with how Spray's draping herself over Hashirama, but also doesn't want to touch that thought with a hundred foot pole.)

  
  


Hashirama smiles a bit more gently. "Guess these last few days have been pretty lucky, huh."

  
  


Sasuke shrugs. "Maybe."

  
  


"A whole galaxy! That's pretty exciting... They don't seem paranoid at all, too, I bet things're pretty peaceful here!"

Hashirama's practically vibrating at the thought.

  
  


Something fond and fuzzy worms its way into Sasuke's chest, and he nods then looks away.

  
  


Hashirama just laughs, and when their hosts return lets himself be led into a meeting hall, where there's much communication about food preferences. (Seaweed cooked with spices is so much better than plain soup!)

They're bunked together - beds don't really seem to be a thing here, instead people sleep suspended in hammocks (which excites Hashirama enough he decides that sounds fun despite it being a bit uncomfortable) or on the floor in blanket nests.

  
  


When it comes time for bed - after a long day of trying to not socialize without annoying people enough to kick them out - Sasuke rolls his eyes and curls up in a blanket nest a few feet under and to the side of Hashirama's hammock.

  
  


"Night, Sasuke," Hashirama says, grinning, hands under his head.

  
  


Sasuke hums, but - 

He thinks he's not too unhappy.

Maybe in a few days he'll even tell Hashirama about some of his story...

(For now, this is good.)

**Author's Note:**

> There'll probably be more in the series, eventually, covering the further adventures (including more multiversal shenanigans), but we'll see how much brain cooperates...


End file.
